Priming boards in preparation for the community art workshops. AmeriCorps volunteers Thomas Bryant and Melissa.

As you might imagine, cutting and priming 80 plywood boards in preparation for the community art workshops seemed like a daunting task. So did clearing the brush and debris along Whitney Avenue. Luckily, some pretty amazing people were willing to give up their Saturday on a holiday weekend to help out.

WAAG would like to extend a huge THANKS to the following individuals:

Holly McIntosh of AmeriCorps KEYS. Holly allotted AmeriCorps volunteers to clear the brush and debris from Whitney Avenue and allowed WAAG to tie-in priming of the plywood boards with AmeriCorps' day of service.

Wilkinsburg Department of Public Works' Operations Manager, Melanie Hall. Melanie was a lifesaver, making the WDPW garage available to store and paint the plywood boards. She received delivery of the boards and made sure her team followed the cut list diagram measurement instructions provided by WAAG.

The Wilkinsburg DPW team: Robert "Bob" Noe, Larry Malone, Otis Carswell and Roy Clark. These guys did all the heavy lifting, and with lots of smiles. Additionally, Bob had pre-cut and labeled the majority of boards while Larry made sure we had enough horses set up to accommodate priming the boards.

AmeriCorps/Jumpstart volunteers and University of Pitt students: Melissa Schmidt, Holly Keene, and Thomas Bryant. Never taking a break, these three helped WAAG's Project Manager prime all 80 boards in record time.

AmeriCorps KEYS and everyone who volunteered their time to serve WAAG and Wilkinsburg on May 29th. Thank you!!!

Adult volunteers will be:• Cleaning out a string of garages to be turned into a greenhouse.• Doing different large scale abandoned lot clean-up.• Boarding up vacant homes with chip board.• As a part of "Beautiful Blocks" people will be sent out to different locations in Wilkinsburg to assist elderly residents cleaning up their yards and clearing back foliage.